Chambord's website notes that its Pink Your Drink campaign has raised more than $50,000 in donations for the Breast Cancer Network of Strength and other patient groups.

Mike's Hard Lemonade has given $500,000 over the past two years to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, company President Phil O'Neil says. The company was inspired by the loss of an employee named Jacqueline who died after a long battle with breast cancer.

"The donations we make to breast cancer research are not tied to sales; they are our way of honoring Jacqueline," O'Neil said in a statement.

In many cases, cause-related marketing is not about charity, says Dwight Burlingame, associate executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University: "These businesses are promoting their product."

At least one breast cancer charity is walking away from alcohol-related gifts. "We have a partnership with alcohol, and I don't understand it, either," says Cindy Geoghegan, the new interim CEO at Breast Cancer Network for Strength. "Those kinds of relationships will not continue."

And though the Breast Cancer Research Foundation appreciates donations from Mike's Hard Lemonade, spokeswoman Anna DeLuca says, the group "in no way, shape or form endorses the consumption of alcohol."

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